Long load time for tracks

I apologize if this is covered somewhere, but I’d appreciate it if anyone has suggestions or can point me in the right direction. I’m experiencing LONG load times for songs in setlists that have tracks associated with them. I have a very fast laptop with an SSD and 64 GB memory running Cantabile version 3 build 3655 (x64). I have ‘pre-load’ enabled on the setlist, and it is definitely not preloading the tracks. It is taking ~15 second to switch to the song that has a string drone track and a pad drone track which are mp3’s (6.5 min long, mp3 is ~7.5 MB in size). 15 seconds is too long to keep the set flowing the way I need. Would wav files be faster? Is this a problem that is corrected in later versions?

Maybe loading the VSTs and automating the drones would be a better idea?

Thanks!